debt

Is $9 Trillion a Lot of Debt?

Hamilton Nolan · 08/26/09 11:26AM

The Way We Live Now: Gap-toothed. Too poor to get a falsie to complete our smile. Lawyers aren't making it! Kitschy yuppie bars on skid row are losing ambiance! Nine trillion dollars in debt is a lot. A lot.

NYT Styles Profiles Annie Leibovitz's Financial Problems And Enablers

Foster Kamer · 08/01/09 06:30PM

You know the Times' Styles section was eventually going to pitch in on the fiscal trials and tribulations of Annie Leibovitz. They delivered, filing a quote-happy roundup on the matter, starring Tina Brown and Graydon Carter, defending their friend.

The Coming Annie Leibovitz Fire Sale

John Cook · 07/30/09 02:46PM

Annie Leibovitz, perhaps the highest-paid celebrity photographer in the world, is profoundly broke. She hocked every photograph she's ever produced and now the high-end pawnshop that gave her $24 million has filed suit to force her to sell it all.

Ominous Viacom Memo: Need To 'Dramatically' Reduce Spending

Hamilton Nolan · 11/04/08 03:20PM

Rumors of pending layoffs at Viacom have been floating around for weeks now. The media conglomerate is in terrible debt, and just yesterday announced that it's canceling its holiday parties from coast to coast. Today, a tipster has sent us an internal memo from Bob Bakish, the head of MTV Networks, that grimly alludes to "unprecedented economic challenges" that have caused a hiring freeze, and will affect spending "dramatically" through the entire coming year. Will the company start off the new year with a round of layoffs? Eminently possible. Bakish's full internal email, after the jump:

NYT Co. May Be Downgraded To Junk

Hamilton Nolan · 10/23/08 04:42PM

Oh, this is really not what you want to hear if you are a fan of the newspapers, or journalism as a whole, or especially if you're an investor in the NYT Co.: In the wake of shitty third-quarter earnings, the ratings service Moody's is warning that it may downgrade the company's debt to junk status. It's currently at Baa3, the lowest rating before junk. A downgrade would make it even harder for the company to borrow money, which—without going into a lot of financial mumbo-jumbo—is not what they need right now (Pictured: their year-to-date stock price). Financial mumbo-jumbo quote from Moody's analysts below:

Aryan Douche Thinks You Want His Sperm

ian spiegelman · 10/18/08 09:09AM

Want to get knocked up by a blond Frankenstein who thinks everything in life is attributable to genetics? All you have to do is pay off his college debt! This Craigslist user will provide you with his "A+" manseed if you relieve him of his responsibility to pay for the education he's received. Just what is "A+" sperm? It's "Irish/Danish. 6', blond, light green eyes, great complexion, great teeth (never needed braces), very well endowed, can eat anything—and not gain weight, natural abdominal six pack." How like a god! Also? Genetics makes this specimen, "Very much into athletics, music, the arts, business..." Plus: "I believe I have great taste." Click through for a bigger pic. By the way, maybe delete the part about being Irish? The bottle is the curse of you people. [Craigslist]

Not Paying Debts Will Really Help Newspaper Save Cash!

Hamilton Nolan · 10/01/08 09:33AM

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune is in severe financial distress, of course, because it is a newspaper. It was sold (at a loss) by McClatchy in 2006 to a private equity firm, and has reliably lost value ever since. Though it still "makes money" in the strictest sense of the term! The paper has already laid off 100 newsroom people and put its headquarters up for sale, but now the company has hit on a new strategy for saving money: not paying the bills! The paper announced that it won't be paying creditors this quarter.

Winfrey Family Ruined By $155,000 Clothing Store Debt

Richard Lawson · 09/03/08 04:55PM

Packing their bindles, cutting the fingers off their gloves, and can-opener-ing the tops of their top hats, the family of humble talk show host Oprah Winfrey is desperately heading for the boxcars, which they'll ride to the sweet misty mysterious hills of West Virginia to live as vagabond hill-hobos until their whimsical, harmonica-tuned, moonshine-soaked deaths. Yes the family is in financial ruin, as evidenced by their being sued by a Wisconsin clothing store over an unpaid $155,000 debt run up by Winfrey's mother, Vernita Lee. She was supposed to pay in $2000 increments, but she didn't for some reason. Why this is remotely news—because surely Winfrey could take off one of her sensible loafers and shake out that much in Sacagaweas and settle this unseemly matter right away—is kind of beyond us, but at least it's not politics!

Annie Leibovitz: Artist or Deadbeat?

ian spiegelman · 08/31/08 03:52PM

Annie Leibovitz, the 58-year-old photographer who cried "Art!" when she took those creepy, porn-y pictures of underage actress Miley Cyrus for Vanity Fair and that racist, King Kong-ish shot of Lebron James on the cover of Vogue, is also so ethereal that she doesn't even pay her bills. According to court documents, the shock-happy shutterbug has racked up debts to the tune of $715,000, even though she supposedly rakes in more than $2 million a year for her headline-grabbing work at Conde Nast.